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UNIT 9 LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT:

LEARNING TO SPEAK
Structure
9.1 Introduction
9.2 What is Language
9.3 Development of Language
9.3.1 Discriminating Speech Sounds
9.3.2 Beginnings of Speech
9.4 Influences on Language Development
9.4.1 Biological Factors
9.4.2 Environmental Factors
9.5 Summing Up
9.6 Answers to Check Your Progress Exercises

9.1 INTRODUCTION
Imagine how it would be if we did not have language to communicate our feelings
and thoughts. We could use gestures of course, but that would be difficult and not as
expressive. Imagine using gestyres to discuss the political situation in the country!
How would scientists and hi$orians have recorded their findings?

In this Unit we kill read about the functions of language. We will learn how the child
aquires language In the first year of life. How do the biological and environmental
factors influence the aquisition of language? How can parents help children learn
language?

Objectives
After studying this Unit, you should be able to
definethe term'language' and explain the uses of language
describe the abilities of the newborn which help in language learning
describe the st&s in the acquisition of language from birth to one year of age
discuss how biological and environmental factors interact to influence the
development of language
explain the role of the caregiver in helping children learn language.

9.2 WHAT IS LANGUAGE

Language is a system that consists of symbols (i.e. words) that stand for particular
objects, relationshipq actions and feelings and through which we can transmit and
understand a large variety.of messages.

The ability to communicate with each other using a language system is unique to
human beings. Of course animals and birds also communicate with each other. Each
spedes has its oyn calls and cries which constitute their language. Bird sounds are
different when they are signaling the approach of a predator as compared to when
they give their calls for matidg. But animals and birds can make only a limited
number of calls and cries. By contrast, the speech of humans is very diverse. We can
make an infinite number of sentences. We are creative in our speech as well, i.e. we
can combine words differently to produce sentences never uttered before. We can
talk about events in the distant past or about im'aginary situaions. The languages of
all human communities have a set of rules which each child learns during the course
of growing up.
 I ~ n g ~ ~ Urvrlopmc~lt
ngr :
Thc ability to talk involvcs thrcc basic proccsscs: the ability to producesounds the
Leurning to Speuk
way wc do, the ability of the cars t o pick u p thesc sounds and the'ability of the brain
t o understand the meaning o f thesc uttcranccs. Human beings are very well equipped
a s regards thcsc three processes. T h e mouth and the nasal cavity consisting of the
lips, teeth, tongue, palate, nasal passage, the larynx, the wind pipe and the vocal
cords help in regulation o f air and a r e designed for production of sound. O u r ears a r e
particularly sensitive in picking up sounds. O u r brain is specially developed to help
us in acquiring language. Therc arc two areas in the brain which a r e concerned with
spccch-one spccialised for spccch production and thc othcr for speech
comprchcnsion. Wc know from research studies that from birth itself, the child is
more responsive t o human language a s compared t o any other sound. It is, therefore,
not difficult t o understand that cvery normal child will lcarn the basics of her native
languagc within the first thrce o r four years o f life, without bcing especially taught to
d o so.

Functions of Language

How is language helpful t o us? We use language for communication. Through

language we express o u r thoughts, nccds, fcclings and idcas. Using languagc wc
reiate o u r present a s well as o u r past cxpcricnccs and lcarn about those of others.
Bcsidcs languagc, thcrc arc othcr ways of communicating with pcople such as using
signs and gestures. Childrcn who arc hard of hearing lcarn to usc sign language. Body
movcmcnts and facial cxprcssions also covcy what onc is thinking and feeling. But
using spccch, i.c. languagc, is the quickcst and most cffcctivc way of communication.
By enabling u s t o communicate, language helps u s to interact with people and form
relationships, i.e. it helps u s t o relate socially.

Language plays a n important role in t h e development of thinking. It helps in

organizing o u r thoughts bccausc it gives labels (i.c. a name) to things, objects and
idcas. You may havc noticcd that whilc busy in an activity, a child oftcn speaks out
aloud about what shc is doing. Whilc making a housc from sand she may say, "Now I
will makc walls ..... Oh! This brcak again.; ....Put flag o n top." This speaking out aloud
helps her t o direct hcr actions:

O u r memory a n d perception a r e also influenced by language. If we have a name for

somcthing, we arc morc likcly t o focus o n it, i.e. perceive it and recall it. Language
also helps in concept formation since i t gives a label for a set of objects. This does
not mean that all thought, perception o r memory takes place only because h e have
language. Languagc certainly aids in thought, but thinking is present even when
there is no language. You will understand this if you recollect what you have learnt in
_ the last Unit. T h e infant docs not begin to speak till she is about o n e year of age but
she certainly has had thoughls before that, a s you havc read in the earlier Unit. T h e
intentional and goal-directed bchaviour of the nine-month-old child shows that she
is thinking, even though shc is not ablc t o speak a s yct.

It is not that only languagc influences thought. T h c development of thinking also

influcnccs languagc dcvcloprnenl. As the child's thinking matures, s o does her
languagc.Thus there is a cyclical relationship between language and
thought-language influcnccs thinking, which, in turn, influences language.

9.3 DEVELOPMENT OF LANGUAGE

To lcarn language, the child must hcar people speak and be able t o discriminate
bctwccn the different specch sounds and words. She must also be able to produce
sounds and gradually lcarn to combine thesc sounds t o produce words. i.e. acquire
language. Let us rcad about the infant's skill in discriminating words before we go o n
to reading the stages in the acquisition of language.
 'Deve'Opment in
the Fimt Welve Months
9.31 Discriminating Speech Sounds
You know that the infant is able to hear at birth and can localise the sound source,
i.e. she can make out from which direction the sound is coming. Her ability to hear
and perceive the direction of sound improves with age. Newborns can discriminate
the mother's voice from other voices as early as the first week of life. Newborns move
their body in rhythm with adult speech as early as 12 hours after birth. If the pace of
the adults speech is fast, the movements of the newborn became fast. If the rhythm of
the speecbslows down, so do the child's movements. They react in this manner to
speech in any language, but do not move in rhythm to tapping sounds or to repetitive
vowel sounds that do not resemble human speech. It has been found that neonates
prefer to hear vocal music w e r instrumental music. This means that the human
infant is more responsive to human speech as compared to any other sound.

Infants have a remarkable ability to discriminate sounds. You know that by three
months of age, the infant has understood that speech sounds are matched by the
speaker's lip movements and can also associate a particular voice with a particular
face. You would know from your experience that the six-month-old is able to
understand a few words and respond to simple questions like: "Where is the ball?",
"No, don't do that!", even though she cannot speak. AII this shaws that the infant is
born with a sensitivity to human speech. This helps her to interpret the speech of
others and learn the skills needed to acquire language.

Most of us believe that language development Starts onlywhen the child utters the
fust word, which is usually around the first birthday. But this is not true. In the first
year the infant is learning to discriminate speech sounds-an ability that helps in
learning to speak later. She also makes sounds in response to the adults' talk and
these sounds lead to words. It has been found that when parents speak to the child
and respond to the sounds that she produces in the early months, her language
development is fostered. Therefore, it is important to talk to babies right from the
time they are born.

9.3.2 Beginnings of Speech

While the infant seems to perceive language from birth onwards, she does not
produce words so early in life. Language development of all children follows a
certain sequence. This means that there are stages in the learning of language that
are universal. This means that all children go through the same stages while
acquiring language and they do so at approximately the same ages, irrespective of the
language they speak. Before we read about the stages in acquisition of language in
the first year, there is one important aspect of communication we must consider and
that is-turn-taking.

Turn-taking is critical for social interaction. In a dialogue between two or more

people, one partner speaks while the other person listens. Then the first one
p&ses and waits forqhe other person to reply. Thus the partners in conversation
take turns to speak and listen. It is very difficult to have any kind of social
encounter with someone who does not take turns. The beginnings of turn-taking
can be seen in very young infants, about a month old, in their feeding patterns.
The neonate while feeding sucks for a while at the breast, then pauses, then sucks
for a while, pauses and so on. When the infant stops sucking, the mother jiggles
her. She does so because she believes that this will cause the infant to suck again.
When the mother stops jiggling, the infant begins to suck. The mother and the -
baby thus'enter into a conversation' which looks like this:
suck-pause-jiggle-pause-suck-pause-jigglepause. They take turns-when the
infant sucks, the mother pauses; when the infant pauses, the mother jiggles. This
is the first non-verbal communication in which the infant participates and is the
basis for all future interactions.

Such two-way communication and turn-taking can be seen in other interactions as

well. When the infant's brother speaks to her, she is quiet and is busy looking at his
face. Then the Mother keeps quiet and waits for the infant to respond. This the
infant does by moving her body, producing some sounds and gurgling. Then the
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 Dmlopwnt :
Lm.g~~ga
infant pauses and looks a t her brother, who begins to talk and play again with her. Learning to Speak
Such interactions indicate that the infant has an inborn ability to take turns which
helps in her language development.

Let us now read about the stages in language acquisition.

Crying :The earliest form of communication that a child uses is crying. From birth
to one month of age, this is about the only sound the baby produces to communicate
her distress and discomfort. Most mothers are able to make o u t what the baby's cry
indicates-whether she is hungxy, wet or just irritable.

Cooing :Around one month of age babies begin t o make cooing sounds in addition
to crying. This stage lasts till 4-5 months after birth. Cooing is a vowel-like sound,
particularly like 'moo.....'. Babies make cooing sounds when they are content and
satisfied. They seem to get pleasure out of it. When the infant coos, the people talk
back to her by repeating the sound she produced-and by making some new sounds. In
turn, the infant responds with more cooing. Such 'dialogues' become more frequent
with each passing day. Such interactions also promote the development of an
emotional bond between the caregiver and the infant.

As the child grows, she spends more time awake and practises sounds. She delights in
producing new sounds And repeats them. She experiments by varying the pitch and
loudness of sounds. The infant seems to be exploring the possibilities of combining
sounds. This experimentation is a very important stage in acquiring language since it
gives the infant an opportunity to perfect sounds. The child first produces and
practises the vowel sounds, (i.e. a, i, e, o, u) so that you can hear sound like, "aaa ...",
"....
iiii ...".Then she practises consonant sounds like p, t,'b, m, d by combining them
with vowels, so that you hear sounds like "beeee ...", "maaaaa ...".

Babbling :Between six and ten months, the infant begins to babble. She repeats
syllables like 'ma', 'da', 'ki', and 'ne' over and over again so that we can hear sounds
like "dadada ...",
"kikikikiki...", "mamama....".This is referred to as babbling. As in
the earlier stage, the infant continues to produce new sounds and experimenting with
them. In the early stages of babbling, the infant may produce sounds like those in
adult speech and it seems as if the baby has learnt some words. For example, when
the baby babbles "mamama ..." or "bababa ...",the parents feel that the child is saying
"mama" to mean the mother and "baba" to mean the father. But these q e not really
words because the child does not use them to refer only to parents. She makes these
utterances in many different contexts and sometimes when the parents are not even
present! The infant's utterances will become words only when she begins to use them
consistently to refer to a particular object/person.

In the later stages of babbling, the infant combines babbling sounds into a 'sentence'.
This sentence has the intonation and rhythm of adult speech. Sometimes the pitch of
the sentence rises towards the end as if the child was asking a question and desires a
response. Sometimes the babbling has a falling intonation which does not seem to
require a response but seems as if the infant is trying to say something. Babbling may
also have an emotional tone and may r;veal the baby's anger, fear, pleasure o r
surprise. You may have observed this. The intonation in babbling helps the adult to
guess what the child is trying to communicate. Thus the infant learns the rhythm or
the tone of speech before she learns the Specific words. She has comprehended that a
rising pitch towards the end of sentences conveys a question.

About this time the infant begins t o use gestures to ask for things she wants and
points at objects. When babbling is accompanied with gestures, it helps to clarify the
child's intention. Of course, the child still uses crying to make her wants known.

The First Words :Some time between ten, and twelve monihs, often around the first
birthday, the infant says the first word. This word may not match the words adults use
but it is a word that the child uses consistently t6refer to some thing, action or
quality. One particular child used the word "mimi" to refer to the liquids that she
The Child :Developmtnt about three to eight words. The first w o r d to be learnt are the ones that refer to
the First Twelve Months familiar objects and people, everyday events and actions. These words are the ones
which people around the child have been using consistently in their speech with her
and have been encouraging her to speak. Some common first words are mama, ball,
come, bye-bye.

The infant's single word utterances do the of an entire sentence. When she says
"bottle" and points to the bottl, she conveys a whole meaning. Dependhg upon the
context, the infant's manner of saying the word and her gestures, the adult
understands whether the child means: "Give me the bottle", "I want milk" or
something else. When the infant points to the mother's saree and says: "Mummy"
she is conveying: "This is mummy's saree." Thus while only one word is used, a
sentence-like meaning is conveyed.

As you read this ~ n i ' tit, is important to remember one thing. While the stages of
language acquisition are universal (i.e., each child must go through these stages in a
particular sequence), the age ranges which we have specified for the stages of
langugge development are not rigid. It is not as if once the child begins to babble, she
stops cooing. There is an overlap between the stages so that the child babbles as well
as coos at the same age. Similarly, when the child begins to say her first words, she
still continues to babble for some time. Besides, the ages specified for particular
stages are only average ages. You know that there are individual differences among
children in the rate of development. Therefore, while the average age of saying the
first word is around the first birthday, some children may do so at ten months and
others at fourteen months.
Check Your Progress Exercise 1

1) Answer the following questions briefly in the space provided below.

a) Define what we mean by the term 'language'. How does language help us?
 Language Development :
b) What evidence is there to show that the child has an inborn sensitivity ta Learning to Speak
human speech and can discriminate speech sounds?
... i.b......................................................................................................................................

.................................................,...............,..........................,........&............4........................

c) Explain the terms 'cooing' and 'babbling'.

2) State whether the following statements are 'correct' or 'incorrect' in the

brackets.
a) It is important to talk to babies during the first year of life because it gives

c) The speech of humans is not diverse. ( 1

d) Turn-taking is crucial for social interactions and the ctiild shows this ability
very early in life. (
e) The child's ability to take turns develops only after the second year. ( ')
f) Babbling is the earliest form of conlmunication used by the child. ( 1
g) While cooing and babbling.the child experiments with sounds by varying
their pitch and loudness and produces new sounds. (
h) The child's utterance will be considered a word onlywhen she uses it
consistently to refer to an object, action or quality.

k) The infant's single words do the work of an entire sentence. (

3) List the stages in language acquisition in the first year of life and state at
which age does each stage begin.

9.4 INFLUENCES ON LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

As in any other area of development, biological and environmental factors
continuously interact to shapiof the child's acquisition of language.
t
.
ibe ~ h :Developrngnt
~ d in
the First h e l v e Months 9.4.1 Biological Factdrs
The biological factors include the genetic make-up of the child and the maturational
timetable. Basic to learning language is the ability to listen and to produce sounds.
The following three facts point that we are biologically predisposed to acquire
language. Firstly the human body, as you have read, is equipped for the purpose of '

speaking, hearing and understanding language. Secondly, all newborns are most
responsive to the sound of the human voice which shows that we have an inborn
ability to learn language. Thirdly, all children go through the same stages while
acquiring language and they do so at approximately the same ages, irrespective of the
language they speak. This universal sequence implies that no matter how hard you
may try toleach a child of one year, she cannot be taught to speak sentences. She has
to be maturationally ready to learn to speak. These facts emphasize the biological
basis of language development.

9.4.2 Environmental Factors

Even though we have the sensory organs and the tendency to speak, no child can
learn language until she hears it being spoken and practises speech. Each child learns
the language of her group-the way she speaks, the words she uses and the accent of
her speech. You have read in Unit 3 about the child who grew up without contact
with people. She could not speak normally and it was difficult to teach her later. You
also know that children who are hard of hearing or deaf, begin to babble at the same
time as other children but after some time the amount of babbling decreases, since
they do not get a feedback. If not provided a hearing aid, the child will grow up
without learning to speak. This brings out the importance of environmental factors
in languqge acquisition.

Research studies have shown that when parents are sensitive to the child's speech
and respond to her utterance., the child's language develops. A rich language
environment leads to better speech development. You know that children living in
institutions generally show lower levels of language development compared to
children in families. A positive emotional relationship with the parents helps the
child to feel secure and lays the foundation for language acquisition.

From this discussion it is clear that the child must be maturationally ready to learn to
speak and'must get opportunities for hearing and practising speech. Let us now read
how adults and older children help the infant in acquiring language, especially during
the first year of the child's life.

Role of the Caregivers: Caregivers, whether adults or children, keep their language
simple when they are talking to infants, especially those only a few months old. They
use short and simple sentences, speak in an exaggerated manner and do not use
pronouns like 'I' or 'you' since these are difficult for the infant to understand. Adults
call out the child's name rather than saying 'you' and call themselves 'mummy',
'daddy' or 'aunty' rather than '1'. They also produce nonsense sounds, i.e. those which
have no meaning, but which the child delights to hear. They respond to the child's
cooing and babbling by talking to her, imitating her and encouraging her. Most of
this modification in the way of talking is instinctive. Caregivers also see what type of
speech the infant responds to most and then use that in their interactions.

When the lnfant is around 4-5 months of age, the caregivers begin to show them toys
and household objects. While showing these they refer to them by their names and
describe them a little. Siblings delight in such activities with the baby and are
untiring in their efforts to attract her attention to an object. By 6-7 months the
infant alsq begins to point at objects, picks them up.and shows them to people. This
increases the interaction between caregivers and the child. By the time the infant is
7-8 months old, the family members also begin to talk about what is going on around
the child. They refer to their own actions and the actions of the child. While walking
with the infpnt on the road the father, on seei?g a fruit seller, is likely to say : "Banto,
look! Bananas! See, there! Banto, eats banana everyday, don't you? It tastes good,
......
mm ?" While bathing the infant, her sister is likely to talk to her: "Now Meena
will have her bath......Oh! Ho!. The water is too hot! Didi will mix cold water in it."
 ---
Language Development :
Thus in a normal environment, the child is continuously surrounded by people who
Learning to Speak'
talk to each other and her. The infant picks up new words from the context in which
they are spoken and in this manner her language develops.

Lullabies and songs are a delightful part of the caregiver-chlld relationship. There
is hardly any one of us who grew up without hearing them. Some of the songs refer to
everyday events like eating. bathing and sleeping. Some of them are about myths and
stories. Infants enjoy the rhythm of the lullabies greatly. In addition, they also learn
new words.

In this way, by 6-7 months the infant begins to recognize the sound and meaning of
commonly used words. The infant is able to understand language not bemuse she
understands all the words that we use. She may understand one o r two words but she
relies on the gestures used; the tone of the voice and the context in which they are
spoken. When the father says: "No, don't touch that!", the child is able to understand
because he points to the forbidden object, shakes his head and raises his voi& to
convey anger or anxiety. This brings us to another aspect of language development
that we must keep in mind. At any age the child is able to comprehend more than she
is able to speak

When children are around 9-10 months of age, parents and relatives begin to play
ianguage games with them. They say a word like "bye-bye" and encourage the child
to reproduce it. They also teach her to wave by showing her the gesture.

Increasing competency in language helps the baby to interact with more people and
form relationships with them and this helps in her social andemotional.
development. You have seen that language helps her to learn about people and
objects. Thus we see that language influences development of cognition and social
relationships. This shows how development in one area influences development in
other areas as well.

Check Your Progress Exercise 2

Answer the following questions briefly in the space provided below.
1) What are the aspects that establish a biological basis for language acquisition?
 - --

The Child :Developmeat ia

-&eFij'WTrrelve Months
..................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................
Howcan we say that the developmeni of language is influenced by environmental
factors?
.................................................................................................................................................
.................................................................................................................................................
..................................................................................................................................................
..................................................................................................................................................
.....................................
............................................................................................................
..................................................................................................................................................
List four ways in which caregivers help the infant to understand and acquire
language.
..................................................................................................................................................
..................................................................................................................................................
..................................................................................................................................................
..................................................................................................................................................
..................................................................................................................................................

9.5 SUMMING UP
Language is a system that consists of symbols (i.e. words) that stand for particular
objects, relationships, actions and feelings. Through language we can transmit and
understand an infinite variety of messages. Language helps us to communicate with
each other and relate socially to people. It aids in the development of thought and
plays an important role in perception and memory.

Every normal human child learns her native language during the course of growing
up. To learn a language, the infant must be able to discriminate between various
speech sounds and she is skilled in doing so from the time she is born. We have an
inborn tendency to learn the sounds of human language. The stages of language
acquisition are universal. However, there are individual differences in the ages at
which each child reaches a particular stage. Initially the baby communicates through
crying. By one month of age she begins to make cooing sounds. Babbling is common
between six and ten months and the infant utters her first word around her first
birthday. She is, however, able to understand quite a few words before this period.
The infant relies on the gestures of the adults, their expressions and the context of
the situation to understand what they are saying. The infant is skilled in
turn-taking-a prerequisite for any dialogue between people.

As in any other aspect of development, the biological and environmental factors

continuously interact to influence the development of language. Caregivers play an
important role in helping the infant acquire language. They keep their language simple
while talking to her and use an exaggerated tone while speaking. When the infant is
around 4-5 months old, they show objects to her. When she is around 7-8 months old
the adults begin to commcnt about what is going on around her. A little later they
encourage the infant to pronounce words. In this way, the infant learns to recognize the
sound and the meaning of words and acquires language.

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 --m---- --- --- .
9.6 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS Learlling to s p e d
EXERCISES
Check Your Progress Exercise 1

1) a) Language is a system that consists of symbols that stand for particular

objects, relationships, actions and feelings and through which we can
transmit and understand a large variety of messages. Language e n a b b us
t o communicate with each other, relate socially to people and also helps in
the development of thought,vemory and perception.
b) Newborns are most responsive to the sound of human voice. They like t o
hear speech sounds over non-speech sounds. By three months of age, the
child has understood that speech sounds are related t o the speaker's lip
movements. They can also associate a particular voice with a particular
face. This shows that the child has an inborn sensitivity t o human speech.
c) ..."
Cooing is a vowel-like sound, particularly like "ooo which babies
produce around one month of age. When infants combine vowel and
consonant sounds like "ma", "da", "ki" and repeat them over and over
again t o produce "mamama", "dididi", it is called babbling.
2) a) Correct
b) Correct
c) Incorrect. The speech of humans is varied and creative.
d) Correct

time she feeds.

f) Incorrect. Crying is the earliest form of communication used by the infant.

h) Correct
i) Correct

3) The stages in language acquisition during the first year are :

crying - from birth onwards
cooing - one month of age
babbling - from 6 to 12 months
first words - around the first birthday

Check Your Progress Exercise 2

1) The three aspects that point towards the biological basis for language
acquisition are : the human body is equipped for the purpose of speaking,
hearing and understanding language; newborns are most responsive to the
sound of the human voice; there is a universal sequence in language
development.
2) The role of environment in language acquisition becomes clear when we
consider the following facts. No child can learn language till she hears it being
spoken. Each child learns the language she hears and she speaks it the way she
hears it. Children living in institutions tend to show lower levels of language
development. When caregivers stimulate the child, her language development
is fostered.
3) i) The caregivers keep their language simple when talking to infants.
ii) They show and describe objects.
iii) They comment about what is going on around the child.
iv) They also play language games with the infant and encourage her t o speak.